Jon Hochstat

Recently through the power of reconnection with old co-workers, classmates and friends that Facebook offers us, I reconnected with someone I worked with at a restaurant I opened in Washington D.C. a long time ago. I was surprised to find out he is now a master pizzaiolo (pizza maker). He is also a member of the United States Pizza Team – an organization which I never knew existed. I opened and owned part of a high end pizzeria overseas 10 years ago that was modeled after Trenton Tomato Pies so I was curious about the U.S. Pizza Team and what my friend Steve Lieber was up to.

I asked Steve to give me a little background about the United States Pizza Team. Here is what he shared with me:

The US Pizza Team is a group of pizza makers and dough acrobats whose goal is to promote the pizza industry. Our acrobatic leader is Juan Hermosillo from the hugely popular VISA commercial.

READ ON for more on pizzaiolo Steve Lieber…

Most of the time when I am thinking what to put together for a Friday for the Foodies posting, the one question I ask myself is “What information can I share with the people who read my column that they can find useful?” Well this week I am turning the tables and requesting information.

Here is the information I am looking for. In the middle of August I am spending a week in Los Angeles. It is my first trip to LA (and California for that matter). I have reached out to Chef and food industry people I know for tips on food places to check out. I also wanted to put it out there to the Hidden Track community as many of you live, have lived, have been to, grown up in or happened to play a gig or two in Los Angeles.

I am looking for suggestions that are off the beaten path a little bit but that are worth taking the time to find and check out. Some of the suggestions I have received so far from my food industry friends are: Animal, Pizzeria Mozza, King Taco, In-N-Out Burger and The Original Pantry for breakfast. I have detailed lists from a few different chefs I know with some great suggestions of places that are either run or owned by people they know. What does the music crowd have to say about LA eats? I hope some of you can provide me (and other readers) with some of your personal favorites. If I can take enough pictures and write enough stuff down, I will try to do a LA food posting when I return.

On the music front for the LA trip I am hoping to catch The Neville Brothers, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The Dirty Dozen Brass Ban at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday August 18th. Also looking for some pre-game suggestions for the show that night in the area near the Hollywood Bowl.

Thanks in advance for any and all LA food recommendations!

In other news, this week Scotty and I decided this week to start up a Hidden Track Foodie Twitter Account.

READ ON for more of this week’s F4tF…

As we are now into summer and things tend to slow down in the restaurant business here in NYC, sometimes it’s tough to come up with a story that hasn’t been written about by the big guys like Eater, Grub Street, The Feed Blog etc… so I thought I would share with you some of the smaller food blogs that I am currently following which offer as much foodie value to me as do “The Big Blogs.”

All of the blogs listed below are currently on my Google Reader’s RSS feeds. Some of these blogs you may have heard of, some you may not have. All of them provide me with unique, fun and informative food news I can use to try new restaurants, recipes and road trips.

Here we go:

89th & Broke – Another set of eyes, mouths and stomachs scoping out NYC food. They post cool stuff like Favorite Food Finds and restaurants not just in Manhattan. Here is their description of the site: “We’re young professionals residing in Murray Hill and Upper East Side who are always looking for something fun to do or the best place to grab a drink and dinner at an affordable price around the city.”

A Passion for Food – The subtitle to this blog is “One real purpose in life. Eat. Try Everything. Anything. Anywhere. In the end, we all want to be happy and good food makes me happy.” It is written by Kathy YL Chan. Another well connected foodie sharing their food experiences via words and pictures. Here is part of her bio from the site “Born & raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, now calling the East Village of NYC home. It’s perfect here. I write the Sugar Rush column at Serious Eats.”

READ ON for more of Friday 4 the Foodies…

Friday for the Foodies is taking a long weekend for the 4th of July. I will be unplugged, at the beach and manning the grill for most of the weekend.

I thought I’d share some fun (and educational) videos that highlight foods that we all eat on the 4th of July and the best way to prepare (and eat) them.

Enjoy the videos and I hope you all have as relaxing a weekend as I plan to.

Cooking with Johan – Grilled Potato Salad

READ ON for more instructional videos about grilling…

On Wednesday, Abita Beer out of Abita Springs, Louisiana announced that they were going to be selling a special brew to raise money for people in Louisiana that were and are still being affected by the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They are calling the new brew Save Our Shore or S.O.S. (as in help!) for short.

Here is part of the article published on WDSU Online about the new brew:

“We just thought that hit home more than anything. Cause what it is, is a distress call. And we’re in distress,” said David Blossman of Abita. Abita and the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board are combining their local flavors to spearhead the campaign, with the 22 ounce specialty pilsner as the top fundraising item. It’s available in 41 states nationwide. “After the cameras are gone and the limelights are no longer here, it will be on the shelves and grocery stores and liquor stores and in bars and restaurants. You can’t miss it when you look at it,” Blossman said. Seventy-five cents of each beer sold and 100 percent of merchandise sales go directly to the charity, which will then be managed by the Northshore Foundation.

The Abita S.O.S. will hit the market in mid-July.

Here are some other stories you may not be aware of from Louisiana based food companies that are trying their best to continue to do business in the face of this horrific disaster:

Louisiana Seafood News shared the story of Shrimpers Using the Internet to Sell Direct to Public. Below is a video from a shrimper named Jimmy Dupre who took his message straight to youtube to speak directly to the public about his situation, the quality of his product and what people can do to help.

READ ON for more on the situation in the gulf…

The 2010 World Cup starts today in South Africa. As someone who has lived in Cape Town for two years, I’m so happy to see the country host this amazing tournament. If you ever have a chance to visit South Africa in your lifetime, do it! It is one of the most beautiful places on this planet.

Here are two places in NYC worth checking out during the World Cup tournament:

Socially Superlative shared that Paradou (located at 8 Little West 12th Street) will be doing $35 Prix Fixe menus for each of the next 4 weeks.

Here is the lowdown on the menus from their article:

Paradou will feature a different special menu for each of the 4 weeks of the World Cup. The menus will reflect the continents participating in the World Cup. There are five continents participating; Australia, Africa, Asia, The Americas and Europe. The menus will be slightly modern takes on classic dishes from those regions. The menus will be 3-course prix fixe. The price is $35. Our menus will be focusing on the following:

Week 1 – Australia
Week 2 – Africa/Asia
Week 3 – The Americas
Week 4 – Europe

READ ON for more of this week’s Fridays For the Foodies…

By the time you read this posting, we will more than halfway through the last day in April, paving the way for the month of May which means there are a lot of holidays you should be planning for.

First up is Cinco de Mayo Wednesday May 5th

According to the website Mexonline, this is the history of Cinco de Mayo:

The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually September 16.

Since Cinco de Mayo usually involves drinking and tequila, you definitely want to get some food in you at some point during that day. Metromix did a great piece recently called Cheat Sheet: Takeout Taquerias. Their opening line for the article reads: Before you lick, suck and swallow this Cinco de Mayo, load up at one of these killer taquerias.

READ ON for more of this week’s Friday 4 the Foodies…